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Great White Fleet (100th Anniversary today)
This was essentially Teddy Roosevelt's announcement to the rest of the world that the United States had arrived as a world power.EFL, much, much more at link The "Great White Fleet" sent around the world by President Theodore Roosevelt from 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909 consisted of sixteen new battleships of the Atlantic Fleet. The fourteen-month long voyage was a grand pageant of American sea power. The squadrons were manned by 14,000 sailors. They covered some 43,000 miles and made twenty port calls on six continents. The battleships were painted white, except for gilded scrollwork on their bows. The Atlantic Fleet battleships only later came to be known as the "Great White Fleet." At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898 the US Navy had painted all of its ships gray and did not return to the white and spar colors until after the conclusion of hostilities. Posted by: Dick Arbusto, CEO of Hallibushwater 2007-12-16 |
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